Showdown on salary looms

THEY abandoned a bitter seven-week dispute on the eve of last year’s general election on a promise that the Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) was the only show in town.

After a series of work-to-rule exercises, escalating to work stoppages, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) suspended their campaign for better pay following the intervention last May of the National Implementation Body (NIB).

A statement by NIB on the settlement of the dispute, said: ‘‘It remains open to the unions to put to the Benchmarking Body a case which reflects a very much expanded role for nurses and midwives in the context of enhanced duties, more cost-effective and appropriate skill mixes and more efficient rosters, as have been proposed during discussions between the parties.